TAIPEI: Officials from Taiwan and the mainland will meet later in the year to try to come up with ways to give further enhancement to cross-Straits cultural ties, it was announced yesterday. Huang Pi-twan, chairwoman of the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA), said there will be a "cultural summit" in September in Beijing. Officials from both sides of the Straits will cover an agenda touching on several issues important to the promotion of cultural exchanges.

"Culture is the largest common ground between Taiwan and the mainland, and the two sides should set up a channel of negotiation," she told a news conference.

Huang revealed that she might take part in the Beijing summit and said that an upcoming forum between Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party of China, scheduled for July in Changsha, Hunan, will also touch on cultural sharing.

The agenda for the Beijing meeting will deal with arranging visits by cultural officials to each other's areas, organizing exhibitions, protecting intellectual property rights and cooperating in filmmaking and the promotion of Taiwanese art, Huang said.

Commenting on the Taiwan pavilion to be built at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, she said the facility will revolve around culture and the CCA will put forward several ideas and proposals to the semi-official Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), which is in charge of construction.

The warming Taiwan-mainland ties have focused on setting up regular, direct transportation links as well as boosting trade and investment.

Culture, however, is considered one of the focal points for creating mutual understanding.

Taiwan's pop culture, especially music, has already been widely influential on the mainland, but its movies, performance arts and other cultural attractions are still not widely known. Imports of the mainland's contemporary culture to Taiwan is even more rare. No mainland TV channels are accessible on Taiwan and few mainland movies are shown in theaters. Taiwan hosts live performances by mainland entertainers only rarely.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 06/26/2009 page2)